“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

[...] I do not mean to be facetious, but you were not born yesterday. Your soul was not born yesterday, in those terms, but before the annals of time as you think of time.

(10:27.) You do not have the same ego now that you had five years ago, but you are not aware of the change. [...] It is a part of the action of your being and consciousness, but as the eye cannot see its own shifting colors and expressions, as it is not aware that it lives and dies constantly as its atomic structure changes, so you are not aware that the ego continually changes, dies, and is reborn.

[...] Jane hadn’t looked at Seth Speaks for long periods during its production in order to avoid conscious involvement with it — but, she said recently, smiling, she plans to read and use this work session by session as she delivers it. [...]

(I’ll indicate Jane’s various states of consciousness as I usually do in these sessions, but the notes can only be hints from an interested observer. [...]

[...] Most likely this was my interpretation of her giving birth to the child; she was supposed to have a Caesarean section but didn’t and was in labor 25 hours; a woman is described here, gray hair, buck teeth, yellow teeth—this, Barb says, is a description of the man’s mother—she wanted him to marry Barb: teeth not really buck but protuberant and yellowed; also gray hair. [...]

[...] Unfortunately now I can’t put my hands on Barbara’s scrawled script but will find it and include it here. [...]

[...] The child had been her own illegitimate child, she had not wanted to tell us this at the time and had been too surprised at the session to do anything; she had wanted to leave but hadn’t it seems been able to.

[...] “Turnabout with the child, a complete change of plan or a turnabout” refers to the fact that she wanted to keep the baby but its father refused to marry her and pushed her into having it adopted; she was a minor also at the time. [...]

“No,” I muttered, “But I had the strangest feeling, as if recording the dream would give it some kind of undue importance. [...] But I got sleepily out of bed, wrote the dream down and dated it.

At no point can we actually say that one construction vanishes and another takes its place, but artificially we adopt certain points as past, present and future, for convenience. At some point, we agree that the physical construction ceases to be one thing and becomes another, but, actually, it still contains elements of the “past” construction and is already becoming the “next” one.

The reflection is brief, but for a moment the animal partakes of a new dimension. [...] As yet, memory storage is small, but now the instantaneous construction is no longer instantaneous, in our terms. [...]

[...] The first was a comparatively minor dream that was surprising to me when it happened, but it could easily have been forgotten. [...]

[...] Like many others, you feared the inner world so strongly, even though you were somewhat acquainted with it through your art, that nothing but panic would force you to try that invisible knob. This time, there was a remembrance of panic but that was all. Actually you opened the door out of desire, stimulated by our sessions and out of curiosity, but you were still frightened.

[...] There was no warning or pain, but the surprise doubled me over my desk. I was frightened, thinking it might be some kind of an attack then, but it passed quickly and did not return.

[...] You switched yourself off automatically because the experience frightened you, but the whole affair was beneficial since it gave you some first-hand experience with pure inner sensory data. It was unfortunate that it was so uncontrolled, but I’m afraid this can often be expected in the beginning. [...]

You can look through psychological time at clock time and even use clock time then to your greater advantage; but without the initial recognition of psychological time, clock time becomes a prison. … A proper use of psychological time will not only lead you to inner reality but will prevent you from being rushed in the physical world. [...]

Such electrical realities then, through the strength of their intensities and their particular range, are projected into some fields, but not projected into others. [...] This is obviously impossible for the physical camouflaged self, but it is not impossible for the inner self, which as you know has its own electrical reality, which is again composed of particular impulses and intensities.

[...] There is here, as I have said, no such thing as size in your terms, or shape in your terms; but there is, again, distance, which is not absolute but varying, and which can be said to exist both backward and forward indefinitely within the infinite intensities. [...]

[...] Within certain frameworks these pyramid gestalts do have an electrical reality, but their existence goes beyond not the range but the nature of electrical reality. [...]

[...] But she does not want to look at them until she is ready to go to work on them.)

[...] The personality will try to develop its abilities further in a freer, more mature fashion, but the old habits will hold the personality back. [...] Not only that, but the economic need itself was important, helping to focus those abilities to some degree, to the needs and desires of others as well as himself.

When I say economy however I am not simply speaking of economics in financial terms—rather in the larger meaning of economy in sparing down, cutting out nonessentials, fearing to waste not simply money, but energy or time. All of these ideas are based upon the fear that an individual possesses only so much energy that must be hoarded, directed—not easily, but with fantastic force. [...]

[...] The ideas of thrift and the puritan attitudes were not the result of the Depression, but helped cause it.

[...] Your life rests secure on top of numberless probabilities, but those probabilities, though not realized by you, are not wasted. [...]

I am not comparing personality to an orange or an onion, but I want to emphasize that as these things grow from within outward, so does each fragment of the entire self. [...] Your physical senses permit you to perceive the exterior forms to which you then react, but your physical senses to some extent force you to perceive reality in this manner, and the inside vitality within matter and form is not so apparent.

[...] But this seemingly unconscious portion of yourself is far more knowledgeable, and upon its smooth functioning your entire physical existence depends.

[...] It correlates information that is perceived not through the physical senses, but through other inner channels. [...]

[...] Now some of the things that I may say about physical reality in this book may startle you, but remember that I am viewing it from an entirely different standpoint.

[...] (Pause.) You are not simply trying to look at the world differently, for example, or to change a hypothetical reality, but to creatively bring about some version of a creative and artistic vision that results not simply in greater poems or paintings, but in greater renditions of reality (all very intently.

This does not mean that he was fated to do any such thing, that it would not be done more easily in other fashions, but you can see some correspondence there by looking at his (underlined) paintings, and the vivid use of contrasting colors that are not subtle. [...] In such a way he sees his own personal situation more clearly—but he also sees the world situation as it reflects the same kind of philosophical questions.

[...] He has not “given up” the book sessions, by the way, but suspended them for these sessions, to give you more time, but they are merely in abeyance.

(Jane said she’d first called me for the session at 8:20, but I had been working in the studio closet and hadn’t heard her. [...]

In a fashion (underlined), it was a great creative and yet cosmic game that consciousness played with itself, and it did represent a new kind of awareness, but I want to emphasize that each version of All That Is is unique. [...] Many people ask, for example: “What is the purpose of my life?” Meaning: “What am I meant to do?” but the purpose of your life, and each life, is in its being (intently). That being may include certain actions, but the acts themselves are only important in that they spring out of the essence of your life, which simply by being is bound to fulfill its purposes.

But man looked out and felt himself suddenly separate and amazed at the aloneness. [...] Before, man had been neither male nor female, combining the characteristics of each, but now the physical bodies also specialized in terms of sexuality. [...]

[...] He sees himself suddenly, in a leap of comprehension, as existing for the first time not only apart from the environment, but apart from all of earth’s other creatures.

[...] (Louder:) He will grow the flower of the intellect—a flower that must have its deep roots buried securely within the earth, and yet a flower that will send new psychic seeds outward, not only for itself but for the rest of nature, of which it is a part.

[...] In the overall, again, the reasons behind Ruburt’s difficulty should be encouraged to rise to the surface of the mind, where they can be encountered—but the idea is not to concentrate upon those reasons but to let them be one part of a larger therapeutic motion or movement in which they show themselves in order to be orchestrated away. [...]

[...] I was still down, but when she described how good the idea of changing things around made her feel, I had to smile. When she asked me what I thought about the session I replied that “we had no choice” but to try to implement it. [...]

[...] She made some good points, but I didn’t agree on others. [...]

[...] She slept late, spent time at her table in the living room, read the mail—which contained some excellent pieces, by the way —but as far as I know did no notes or other writing.

[...] But it does seem like a mixed blessing at best. [...] She is a nice person who means well, but who also broadcasts negative suggestions like a radio beacon, quite unwittingly. [...]

[...] He has been doing his own kind of energy exercises, involving the particular “sore” (the ulcer on her coccyx; it’s slowly closing), but I suggest that he does one of those exercises faithfully every day, and that both of you simply see the area healed. You don’t even have to say “It will be healed,” but simply see it mentally in that condition. [...]

[...] There is no doubt that Ruburt was deeply shocked by some of the doctors’ pronouncements involving his walking—but already there are signs of loosening in the knees, and in the leg muscles as well. [...] The box idea (propping up her legs while she’s prone on the bed) is an excellent one, but should be tried very gradually and easily at first, and then gradually expanded in time. [...]

[...] This question has arisen because of my work on the intro for Dreams, of course, I have the feeling that it might be useful to get something on this so that I could use it to close the intro, but we’ll see. [...]

[...] I probably won’t call Dr. Kardon or the hospital tomorrow, but will simply wait for nature to take its course, since except for the movement in the knees—which hasn’t increased—it’s been all bad, so the general outcome for the future is all but inevitable. [...] I’ve also thought of not finishing Dreams, but going back to painting for the rest of my life—another option. [...]

(5:37 PM.) One small note: these sessions also carry overlays of meanings doubled in upon themselves that are connected with the words but are not part of the words, but carried by the sounds. [...]

[...] But it all tasted delicious. [...]

[...] I was filled with impotent rage at the turn events have taken for us, but said little. [...]

Not upon reversing symptoms but upon the desired results. Not what is wrong but what is right, and how a greater degree of “rightness” can be achieved. [...]

[...] I have said this often, yet I cannot overemphasize it: Emphasis should not be upon the problem but upon its solution.

But the search for health should be concentrated upon—not the state of ill health at any time. [...]

[...] It is most important that Ruburt believe this, but extremely helpful if you will.

[...] The male scientist is often ashamed of using his intuitions, for not only do they appear to be unscientific, but female as well. [...] To be “illogical” is a scientific “crime” — not so much because it is an unscientific attribute, but because it is considered a feminine one. [...]

[...] There may be minor interweaving ones, but the nature of personality, religion, politics, the family, and the arts — all of these are considered in the light of the predominating theme.

[...] There are some exceptions of note, but here I am speaking historically of the Western world with its Roman and Greek heritage. [...]

Before then there were various kinds of divisions of labor, but great leeway in sexual expression. [...]

(She said the rascal reference concerned data she received from Seth tonight, but did not speak aloud. The data was to the effect that she’d hear from Prentice-Hall within three or four days; but she didn’t voice it because she had been distorting predictions recently, and didn’t want to do so again now.)

[...] Jane wasn’t aware of anyone being present at first, but at 9:15 she got a slight impression of the cone effect, described in the last two sessions. [...]

[...] These are of course imaginary, but the image will help you understand the concept. [...]

[...] But no boundaries really close a system, and within any set, any given set of coordinates, there will be others. [...]

There are endless coordinates, like infinities of prisms, fitting within, into, transposed upon, and permeating your own physical system, but your outer senses do not perceive them.

For example (pause, eyes closed; one of a series along in here), I was about to explain by telling you that these image traces are not, of course, visible physically, but latent. [...]

[...] The possibility is there, but as a rule this does not occur. [...]

[...] One of several here.) This is indelible, but not always immediately available for reference. [...]

(Jane finds her “massive feelings,” as she calls them, not only instructive psychically, but exhilarating indeed when they encompass revelatory or transcendent states of consciousness. [...]

[...] She continued to lie quietly on the couch, eyes closed, but in a few minutes told me she’d just been visited by a most strange sensation. [...]

[...] She hadn’t sensed anything happening within this area, but thought that she might have, given more knowledge and experience. [...]

[...] She felt each one upon awakening from a nap, but with her eyes still closed. [...]

[...] There are indeed limitations inherent within their structure, but in all cases any given identity is more than the dimension in which it finds itself. Its limitations may be great, but the limitations are set not by the identity’s nature but by the dimension in which it exists.

[...] But the important point, if you will forgive a pun, is that these moment points are all intensities, electrical realities, and traveling through such dimensions involves a transformation of energy from one intensity to another. The whole self, or the entity of which I speak, is composed of all of these selves, but it must be realized that all divisions between these selves are illusions, basically speaking. For the sake of discussion we separate them, but in doing so we almost manage to change the very nature of that which we attempt to study.

[...] But she did well. [...]

[...] These dimensions may be traveled through; but they may not be traveled through by the ego, for the ego can only perceive those dimensions which it is physically equipped to see, or perceive.

But I note with some amusement that science absorbs such heresies by weaving them into and developing them out of current establishment thinking—concepts, say, like the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Put very simplistically, this “quantum approach” allows for the theme that each of us inhabits but one of innumerable probable or parallel worlds. [...] (Some physicists, however, have implied that subatomic particles—photons—communicate with each other as they take their separate but “sympathetic” paths.) Pardon my irony here, but Seth has always dealt with the ramifications of consciousness and maintained also that we do not inhabit just one probable world, but constantly move among them by choice—and by the microsecond, if one chooses.

[...] But I think that the continuum of consciousness, or All That Is, contains not only the phenomena of quantum mechanics, but also Seth’s nonphysical EE (electromagnetic energy) units, and his CU’s (or units of consciousness). [...]

[...] (We also have deep reservations about the theory of evolution and its “survival of the fittest” dogmas, but this isn’t the place to go into those subjects.) Far more basic and satisfactory to us are the intuitive comprehensions that this “nature” we’ve helped create is a living manifestation of All That Is, and that someplace, somewhere within its grand panorama, each action has meaning and is truly redeemed. [...] Science calls the idea holonomy, but Seth has been saying the same thing for years without ever mentioning the word. [...]

[...] Traditionally we’ve cast that feeling or knowledge in religious terms, for want of a better framework, but I think that more and more now the search is also on within science for a theory—even a hypothesis—that will lock up our often subjective variables into what might be called a more human equivalent of the still-sought-for unified theory in physics. [...]

Nor would I have attempted such a procedure until I knew that Ruburt was ready for it, or at least ready to begin it, for this is but a beginning. [...] This is of course a training period, and he may become momentarily uneasy, but never frightened. It is simply a matter of new orientation, and doing without certain props that are basically unimportant, but practically extremely convenient; such props as the divisions of sensation, fenced in from each other by pickets of minutes.

[...] She took off her glasses as usual, but instead of rising to begin pacing about the room she remained seated. [...] Her voice was normal, her delivery rather rapid but with pauses. [...]

(Jane’s delivery of the above material had been somewhat slow and hesitant, but clear. It gave me the feeling of being uneven, but I note that the typewritten copy reads as well as any of the other material. [...]

[...] She has not shown outright opposition to experimenting, but from various remarks of hers I know she is still not enthusiastic about giving up any of the props she has become accustomed to—the pacing, the open eyes, etc. [...]